ICEJ Prayer 2.0

The Tsunami of Prayer

In recent years, God placed a vision in my heart that never left me but returned again and again. I saw in my spirit the globe with its different continents. As the earth rotated and the sun rose on the different continents, I saw the border between day and night like a wave of fire circling the earth. Wherever the sun was rising, people were waking up, seeking the Lord. I saw a wave of prayer that circled the earth every day: 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I saw a prayer movement that rises in the morning, prays for Israel, prays for revival and prays for their own community and their own needs. It was a wave of prayer that circled the world at every new dawn, and which grew into a powerful tsunami of prayer. I get excited whenever I think about it.

A blessing for Israel at 70!
I do believe there is no better date to launch this initiative than when Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary. The prayer wave will be our birthday gift to Israel, and it can be your birthday gift to Israel, as well! Imagine thousands of people around the world standing with Israel every day in prayer. Prayer is the most powerful support you can give to Israel, so please consider joining us.

A new focus on prayer
In the past seven years, God has been directing our attention more and more to the power of prayer. In 2011, we started what became the Isaiah 62 prayer initiative. It started with our staff’s Monday morning devotion on January 3rd, 2011. I drove to the office prepared with what I thought to be an inspiring New Year’s message, when I felt God telling me, “Forget your sermon, you need to pray.” I will never forget this prayer meeting. God’s spirit was directing us to pray for the Arab world, so we prayed for revival in every Arab country and for God to remove the mask from Islam to reveal its true face. God’s presence felt so tangible in that meeting, and we experienced touching upon something special. We called upon our branches to join us to pray and fast for the rest of January. As the weeks passed, we saw news emerging in the Arab world and saw pictures of demonstrations on Tahir Square in Cairo, Egypt, which soon swept over the entire Middle East. I don’t want to infer in any way that all this started just because of our prayers alone. We know that millions of Christians prayed decades before us for the Arab world, but I did feel that God was telling us, “I am going to do something in the Middle East, and I want you to be part of it.” God gave us the incredible privilege to actively participate in what He was doing in the world.

Over the years, we have seen many direct results of our prayers. Two years ago, Ethiopian Aliyah was in a deadlock and government experts told us that it would take years for the government to allow the Ethiopian Jews to come home. We felt led to pray according to Isaiah 43:6. In faith we spoke to the south, “Do not keep them back!” Within less than a month, the breakthrough came and the green light was given for the remaining 9,000 Ethiopian Jews to return home to Israel. A government official told me: “It is a miracle. I never thought this would be possible!” But our God is a prayer-answering God.

God’s healing touch
In past years, our senior leadership has faced major health challenges. Danny Meka from India not only survived a gas explosion, but God answered our prayers and within weeks he was miraculously restored from severe body burns to complete health. Our UK director suffered a major aneurism, and his wife was told to bid him farewell. But God answered our prayers, and David Elms is alive and back in ministry. Whenever he comes to the hospital for a check-up, the doctors welcome him saying, “Here comes the miracle man!” I also experienced my own miracle when doctors gave up on me. The Lord gave me my life back through an operation that surgeons in Israel told me was impossible to carry out.

Just a few weeks ago, we prayed for a public matter in Israel, and the answer came in a news report during our prayer meeting.

Through many more experiences, we have learned that God is a prayer-answering God and that nothing is impossible for Him. We just need to connect with Him in faith, in prayer and in trusting Him for the impossible.

Many before us have experienced the same.

Praying men of God
John Knox, the Scottish reformer, famously prayed, “Give me Scotland, or I die.” His prayers were seen as so effectual that the Queen of Scotland reportedly said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies of England.”

George Mueller, father of over a thousand orphans in Bristol, experienced over his entire lifetime the supernatural provision of God. When facing a financial challenge, he would not tell anybody except God. He trusted God to be a faithful provider and father for the orphans. He left behind a legacy that inspired millions of Christians around the world.

Rees Howells, a child of the Welsh revival, saw countless answers to prayer during his ministry. His school in Swansea was particularly used by God during WWII, through interceding strategically for Europe, which then seemed lost to Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.

John Hyde, the ‘Apostle of Prayer’, saw amazing breakthroughs in India, where he served during his short life. The late British Bible teacher, Derek Prince, reports in his book, “Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting”, how he experienced prayer to impact historic events like WWII in North Africa, the establishment of Israel 70 years ago and the struggle for independence in Kenya. Prayer is a powerful force.

James, the brother of Jesus, says: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16) Of James himself, Church history informs us that he had thick-skinned knees, “like a camel”, because of the many hours he daily spent on his knees in prayer.

The next level of Isaiah 62

Fervent prayer has become a dynamic part of our weekly staff routine, and since we started the Isaiah62 Prayer initiative in 2011, prayer has become an important global component of our work. Today we have prayer warriors, individuals and groups in over 120 nations who pray with us around the world. Even in nations that are hostile to Israel, people are interceding with us. In countries like Germany and the USA alone, we have over 100 prayer groups in each country. In China, we are privileged to be part of a huge nationwide prayer network. Only God knows how many people pray with us around the world. Today, by the grace of God, we are virtually represented in every time zone of the world by prayer partners standing with us.

Now, we feel the Lord is leading us to take this initiative to the next level. We feel God wants us to move from a monthly initiative to a daily prayer force. Therefore, we want to ask you to join us. I believe this will not only bless Israel, but it will also bless your life, family and ministry. You are invited to join us either through a daily or a weekly commitment.

Our vision is to cover the world with a wave of focused prayer that circles the globe every day. We will specifically be praying for Israel and the nations, and it will be like a wave bringing a new level of blessing to Israel, to the nations and to your life!

Every morning, as the sun rises, an army of prayer warriors will rise to seek God regarding His purposes in the world and for Israel. We will give God no rest day and night, until He establishes Jerusalem as a praise on the earth. This is a noble cause to be involved with, so please prayerfully consider joining us in prayer wherever you are.

Here is how it works:

We have chosen a two-hour window for prayer in each time zone of the world. This time window is between 5 - 7 am every morning, no matter the season. During this time, we ask you to commit to pray with us for a minimum of 30 minutes and up to one hour or more. These are the options:

YOUR COMMITMENT

A) DAILY PRAYER PARTNER: You (and your prayer partner/group) commit to pray daily with us for 30 mins or more at any given time between 5 - 7 am your local time.

B) WEEKLY PRAYER PARTNER: You (and your prayer partner/group) commit to pray once a week or several days a week with us for 30 mins or more at any given time between 5 -7 am your local time.

If you want to join this global prayer wave, please send an email to: prayerwave@icej.org or sign up at:www.icejprayerwave.com

When you join this prayer movement, the ICEJ will provide you with weekly “Prayer Wave Updates” from Jerusalem. The prayer requests will be strategic prayer points on how to pray for Israel, both for matters regarding national importance and for the local body of Christ. In addition, we will pray strategically for nations around the world as the Lord leads, and we will also ask you from time to time to pray for matters related to our work in Israel.

For this purpose, we have commissioned a special, full-time person here in Jerusalem, who will coordinate the global prayer agenda with his team, and his name is Joshua Gooding. Joshua has served as the "ICEJ prayer coordinator" since March, and he is working closely with me and the senior leadership team. Please keep him in your prayers together with the entire ICEJ team here in Jerusalem.

My prayer is that by the end of the year this prayer wave will be 24/7 and that it in the years to come becomes a powerful and unstoppable tsunami of prayer that sees many answers to prayer and brings forth God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven”.